Table 1–1.
List of epidemics that occurred worldwide until the 21st century.
| Name of epidemic | Period | Type of disease | Place | Number of deaths | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens Plague | 429–26 BCE | typhus, typhoid fever, or viral hemorrhagic fever | Greece, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia | 75,000–100,000 | (Papagrigorakis et al.) |
| Justinian Plague (1st plague) | 541–42 | Bubonic plague | Europe and West Asia | 30–50 million | (Burki, 2007) |
| Black Death (2nd plague) | 1346–53 | Bubonic plague | Europe, Asia, and North Africa | 75–200 million | (Robinson, 2004) |
| 1510 influenza | 1510 | Asia, North Africa, Europe | Influenza | Around 1% of those infected | (Morens et al., 2010) |
| Naples Plague | 1656 | Bubonic plague | Italy | 240,000–1,250,000 | (Scasciamacchia et al.) |
| 1st cholera | 1817–24 | Cholera | Asia and Europe | 100,000+ | (Hays, 2005) |
| 2nd cholera | 1826–37 | Cholera | Asia, Europe, and North America | 100,000+ | (Hays, 2005) |
| 3rd cholera | 1846–60 | Cholera | Russia | 1 million+ | (Hays, 2005) |
| 3rd plague | 1855–1960 | Bubonic plague | Worldwide | 12 million+ | (Hays, 2005) |
| 4th cholera | 1863–75 | Cholera | Middle East | 600,000 | (Hays, 2005) |
| 5th cholera | 1881–96 | Cholera | Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America | 298,600 | (Hays, 2005) |
| 1889–90 flu | 1889–90 | Influenza or HCoV-OC43 | Worldwide | 1 million | (Hays, 2005) |
| 6th cholera | 1899–1923 | Cholera | Europe, Asia, and Africa | 800,000+ | (Hays, 2005) |
| Spanish flu | 1918–20 | Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 | Worldwide | 50 million+ | (Patterson Kd Fau et al., 1991) |
| Asian flu | 1957–58 | Influenza A virus subtype H2N2 | Worldwide | 1–4 million | (Paul, 2012) |
| Hong Kong flu | 1968–70 | Influenza A virus subtype H3N2 | Worldwide (mainly in Hong Kong) | 1–4 million | (Paul, 2012) |
| HIV/AIDS | 1981–present (data as of 2018) | Human immunodeficiency virus | Worldwide | 32 million+ | (UNAIDS, 2010) |
| Bangladesh cholera epidemic | 1991 | Cholera | Bangladesh | 8410–9432 | (Ali et al., 2012) |
| SARS | 2002–04 | Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) | Worldwide | 774 | (WHO, 2015b) |
| Swine flu | 2009–10 | Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 | Worldwide | Estimated death toll: 284,000 | (Gordon et al., 2012) |
| MERS | 2012–present | Middle East respiratory syndrome/MERS-CoV | Worldwide | 935 (as of 4 July 2020) | (Desk, 2020) |
| West African Ebola | 2013–16 | Ebola virus virion | Worldwide, primarily concentrated in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone | 11,323+ | (WHO, 2016b) |
| Avian influenza | 2013–19 | Influenza A virus subtype H7N9 | China | 616 | (FAO, 2019) |
| Zika virus | 2015–16 | Zika virus | Worldwide | 53 | (Wikipedia, 2020a) |
| Dengue fever | 2019–present | Dengue fever | Asia-Pacific and Latin America | 3930 | (WHO, 2020) |
| COVID-19 | 2019–present | SARS-CoV-2 virus | Worldwide | 1.3 million+ (as of December 2020) | (Acter et al., 2020) |